Notes from the back row

1408 a surprise summer hit

First the bad news. The new Angelina movie,
A Mighty Heart
, is not opening in Whistler this Friday. It has a
limited release and will be showing in Vancouver. Don’t throw yourself off the
bridge yet though, I’m sure it will be given a wider release after everyone
realizes how great it is — true story, verite-style director, talented actress
in a serious role. All the ingredients for success.

Now the good news,
1408
drops Friday and (like Popeye’s chicken) it’s frickin awesome! Based on a story
by horror master Stephen King (
The Shining, Stand by Me, Carrie,
the list goes on)
1408
is an old-fashioned paranormal psychological
thriller with a good-sized pinch of “holy crap that was freaky.” John Cusack
stars as a writer who loses his daughter to disease, and then loses his faith
in life, God, and especially the afterlife. As a writer, he cynically
discredits ghost stories, saying he’d like to believe but hasn’t seen anything
yet to convince him.

Then he gets a postcard from the swanky Dolphin Hotel with
“Don’t go in room 1408” scrawled on it. So he does, and that’s when the poop
hits the oscillating device.

Samuel L. Jackson co-stars as the hotel manager that warns
Cusack about the 50+ people that have died in 1408, but he just won’t listen
and soon he’s trapped in a shape-shifting, nightmare-world mash-up of his past,
the room’s bloody history and all the paranormal things he’s been not-believing
in for so long.

Director Mikael Hafstrom (
Derailed)
does a stand-up job, his numerous close-ups of
mundane things like boots and door locks fits King’s detail-driven prose style
perfectly and builds a charged atmosphere that keeps you interested and nervous
throughout the 96-minute film. Cusack is fantastic in this genre picture, bringing
wit, humour and empathy to the role, we really side with him right from the
beginning.

1408
is gonna be one of
those out-of-nowhere, surprise hits of the summer. Rather than rely on shock
and fetishized gore like much of the horror flicks of late, Hafstom, working
from King’s text, has crafted an ominous mindf*ck of a film that blurs the
lines between fantasy and reality, life and death, and horror and thriller.
It’s well paced, and it’s creepy, but in a believable way. This is a perfect
summer movie.

Evan Almighty
, on the
other hand, is unbelievably not-perfect, it’s not even close.

Perhaps the most expensive comedy ever (over $175 mil is what I
heard,)
Evan Almighty
is about a
present-day politician who is appointed by God (Morgan Freeman) to build
another ark, like Noah did in the bible. Evan is played by Steve Carrell (
Anchorman,
40-Year Old Virgin)
and, even here, he’s a
funny guy. Not funny enough to save the movie though, cause the rest of it
stinks worse than the animal-poop and hammer-hits-finger jokes that are
supposed to be carrying it.

From Evan referencing the book “Ark building for dummies” (the
real dummies are the saps in the audience, as if you couldn’t tell this was
gonna lick bag just from watching the previews) to the fuzzy, happy CGI
animals, to the heavy religious preaching in the latter half, to the PG-13-ness
of the whole thing,
Evan Almighty
ends
up being actually shittier than
Bruce Almighty
. If you go to Sunday school and you’re five and half
and bored with summer then this is the movie for you, otherwise it’s just a
shameless example of Hollywood trying to cash in on the religious right. I bet
even God hates this. Skip it.